Thanks to a unanimously agreed Constitution

During the no-confidence vote, the government of Imran Khan alleged that the opposition was acting against the Constitution in being part of a foreign conspiracy — as yet judicially unsubstantiated — to oust him.

The opposition too claimed that Imran and his government’s Speaker and Deputy Speaker had acted in violation of the Constitution by dismissing the no-confidence motion.

The Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the political crisis, heard all the parties in order to determine if and if so to what extent the Deputy Speaker had violated the Constitution.

The army took the stand that as per the Constitution and their oath they had no role in politics.

While all four main actors of our national real politique — Executive, Opposition, Judiciary and Military — acted in their own ambit, they all justified their actions in terms of the Constitution, thereby pledging allegiance to and upholding a single, agreed-upon, national Constitution.

Even after the passage of the no-confidence vote by a majority of 174 members — excluding the 19 defecting PTI members — the government and the opposition are exchanging allegations, blaming each other for violating the Constitution.

What if there did not exist such a generally accepted basic law of the land? How would the battle have been fought, to use the terminology of a combat, if there were no agreed-upon rules of the game? Mayhem and anarchy?

Even the claims by one side that the other side had acted by sidestepping constitutional requirements are being made by remaining within the framework of the mutually-accepted charter.

Quite apart from the fact that such an inconceivable situation perhaps may never have arisen as, even if all three constitutions — of 1956, 1962 and 1973 — were not there, the 1935 Act would theoretically still have been present, the importance of the existence of a political and social contract cannot be gainsaid in terms of national unity.

Let us come out of theoretical discussions and thank the statesmanship, maturity and sense of accommodation of the diverse political leadership of 1973 belonging to the four provinces who sat down in a national spirit, rising above regional perspectives, and agreed on a consensual Constitution which, after the breakup of the country in 1971, has been the grundnorm and glue that has held the country together.

All forms of government, ever since its formulation, have appealed to this same Constitution to justify their existence and legitimacy, both military as well as civilian.

Whatever the political ups and downs, whatever the differences among political parties, which constitute the very essence of a party-based democracy, the recognition that there are multiple and plural approaches to solving problems of the people, if in the end all democratic issues are resolved according to an agreed-upon Constitution there is hope yet — hope that a charter of duties and rights exists to resolve differences and that the system and the country will not be at risk.

So let us thank those who gave us this agreed compact between the society and state. Let us feel grateful for the existence of a consensus document, the 1973 Constitution, and safeguard it at all costs.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2022.

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